Boston company to set up support center in Lewiston

LEWISTON, Maine — A Boston-based company that provides computer hard-drive backup services is setting up a customer support center in Maine’s second largest city with plans to have more than 150 employees there by the end of the year, officials announced Tuesday.

Carbonite Inc. announced it is leasing about 20,000 square feet of space in Lewiston that will house customer and technical support workers who are now based in India, said CEO David Friend. By having the center in Maine rather than overseas, the company can deliver a “superior customer experience,” he said.

“It’s a lot more expensive obviously, but we’ve found with our product that when people’s computers crash and they’re relying on us to get their files back, the customer experience is really important,” he said after a news conference to announce the company’s plans.

Friend was joined by Gov. Paul LePage and other officials to announce the company’s foray into Maine.

“We like to say that ‘Maine is open for business,’ and the fact that an innovative, fast-growing company like Carbonite has chosen to locate here demonstrates that we are serious about making this a business-friendly state,” LePage said.

Carbonite was founded in 2005 and has since grown to more than 400 employees with more than $38 million in revenues last year. It announced this month it intends to go public with a stock offering.

Carbonite plans to employ up to 50 people in Lewiston by the end of the summer and have 250 employees by the end of 2012.

The company expects its Lewiston facility to be operating by the end of June, Friend said.